1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of supporting self-service shopping. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method, a program, and a system in which a shopper obtains contents associated with items by using electronic shelf labels (ESL) while looking at the actual items displayed in a store, and to a mobile processing device and electronic shelf labels (ESL) enabling above.
2. Description of the Related Art
Along with an introduction of IT to the retail industry, a lot of department stores, supermarkets and convenience stores, generally introduce a POS system to perform sales, inventory, and order management. Further, the latest large stores introduce a system called electronic shelf label (ESL), which is capable of changing the prices of items all at once on a timely basis in conjunction with information from the POS system. It is mounted on items shelves in the stores and communicates with a wireless device or an infrared device placed on a ceiling or a wall.
Some states in the U.S. oblige the use of the ESL in order to prevent a difference between a shown price and a purchase price.
On the other hand, an increasing number of major supermarkets deal with home-delivery type net-supermarket services using the Internet. It is expected to expand widely in the future along with the increase of aging people since it does not require consumers to carry heavy items with them. In the net supermarkets, shoppers select and purchase items with images and prices displayed on web pages. A lot of people, however, demand to pick up and see the actual item, to check its color, size, and quality, and to be satisfied with it before purchasing. Moreover, many people want to go down to a store actually, but hate to carry a heavy cart or a basket filled with purchased items.
There is a related art document, Japanese Patent No. 4176172 disclosing a self-service shopping system, which uses electronic shelf label (ESL). This related art document briefly describes that the store prepares a portable hand-held barcode scanner to make a shopper carry it in the store and scan items on a self-service basis. The related art document includes a description of preventing a shopper from handling the scanner because these scanners may be dropped or otherwise damaged by shoppers and this type of self-service shopping system can be expensive for the store.
Admittedly, the scanner prepared by the store will be a special purpose device in the first place and a new shopper will be unfamiliar with handling the scanner. Therefore, it is possible that the scanner is broken by an unexpected operation performed by the shopper, in some cases, an erroneous operation performed by the shopper possibly causing a purchase different from the shopper's intention.
Accordingly, in the related art document, the shopper uses an item selector card for selecting items for purchase and an electronic shelf label (ESL) connected to or including a barcode reader of the card to cause the electronic shelf label (ESL), which is provided on the shelf of the items to be purchased, to read a barcode on the card. It is also possible to cancel by causing the barcode reader to read the barcode at an opposite end of the card. Although this prevents the scanner from being broken, a shopper needs to give attention to which of the two types of barcodes should be read and is not informed of the contents of purchased items so far and each price or the total price until the shopper comes to the checkout terminal.